Samuel’s Obituary Samuel “Sam” Everett Absher, a longtime resident of Gearhart, Oregon, passed away peacefully from Alzheimer’s disease on Dec. 5, 2018 in Portland, Oregon. Sam will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 62 years, Janice (Jorgenson); and by his three children, Kimberly Abel (Michael), of Aberdeen, Washington, Steve Absher (Mila), of Hawaii, and Laura Holgate (Michael), of Portland, Oregon.
He will also be fondly remembered by his five grandchildren, Ryan, Jordan, Nikolas, Alexa and Alicia; and forever in the hearts of his two sisters, Carolyn Mathis, of Florida, and Debbie Malatia, of Georgia; and his brother, Jerry Absher, of Florida. In addition to his parents, Sam was preceded in death by his sister, Shirley, and grandson, Eliott. Sam was born in Carmi, Illinois, on March 16, 1936 to Verbal (Medlin) Absher and Maurice Absher, and grew up on a farm, where he learned to be a hard worker and developed a love of animals and the outdoors.
He graduated from Hebron High School in 1954, and soon afterwards met Janice, whom he married in 1956. He and Janice and their three children, born in 1958, 1959 and 1963, lived in Wonder Lake, Illinois, until moving to Newport Beach, California, in 1973. In 1977, they traveled the length of the Pacific Coast in search of a new place to call home.
The journey took them all summer, and by fall of 1977 they settled in Seaside, Oregon, and a few years later moved to nearby Gearhart. Once in Oregon, Sam went into construction. His company, North Coast Construction, continued until he retired in 2008.
Sam lived in Gearhart until moving to a memory care center in 2010. The home he and Jan shared was Sam’s pride and joy, built in 1918 and, unbeknownst to anyone when they bought it, was hiding a structure built entirely of logs between the exterior cedar shakes and the interior walls. Sam, together with his son, Steve, and other family members, stripped all the bark off the logs and transformed the old cabin into a one-of-a-kind rustic home.
Sam enjoyed all that the Oregon Coast has to offer — clamming on the beach, fishing, foraging in the forest for mushrooms and berries and hiking through the beautiful surroundings. He also maintained a large garden and loved eating everything fresh from the ground or the sea. Sam will be remembered as a smart, creative man who was interested in many subjects and all kinds of people.
He was always eager to learn and experience new things, and was a man with many skills and talents. As one of his grandsons said, “He could do anything”. Like his cabin, he was one of a kind.
A private celebration of life will be held in January.
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